2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix highlights

Introduction

 

Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of pole positions and race wins at the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix with another dominant display in Sunday’s main event, leading home Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

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Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:

One driver dominated this Grand Prix from start to finish, but there was plenty of excitement in the battles between the nineteen others. From our point of view, everything went well. Our simulations going into this race were confirmed on track in all the changing conditions we experienced from Friday through to today. We knew the Soft would not be a suitable race tyre, but both Medium and Hard allowed those behind the wheel to push and attack when necessary, showing a sufficient differential in degradation between them without suffering any excessive overheating. In terms of strategy, too, the race went to plan. The VSC on lap 15 did not influence the number of stops, but it did open up alternative choices in terms of choosing the window for the first pit stop. The top four finishers went for two Medium stints and one Hard if we ignore Verstappen’s final stop, which is not relevant to this analysis, while those who from Friday had preferred to keep two sets of C3 mainly opted to use both along with a set of Mediums.

How the race was won from the tyre point of view:

Max Verstappen topped every single results sheet from the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, picking up the maximum 34 points in this ninth round of the World Championship. The Dutchman permitted himself the luxury of an unplanned pit stop with just two laps remaining to secure the extra point for the race’s fastest lap. Today, Sergio Perez made his second appearance of the weekend on the podium, with a fine charge through the field to finish third after his second-place finish yesterday. Scuderia Ferrari drivers also visited the podium twice, with Carlos Sainz third in yesterday’s short race and Charles Leclerc taking the runner-up spot this afternoon to secure his second podium finish of the season. It was also the 800th time that a Ferrari driver had stood on an F1 podium.

The race was run on a dry track, and the temperatures were slightly lower than on Friday afternoon, with the air at 24 °C and the track at 32 °C. The strategies adopted matched the previous day’s predictions. The Soft (C5) was hardly used at all, with the exception of Verstappen’s final assault on the fastest race lap. The kilometres completed were thus fairly equally divided between the Hard (C3,) 54.55% of the total laps completed and the Medium (C4), 45.3%.

Predictions relating to the number of stops and their windows of operation were also confirmed, with a two-stop proving to be the quickest strategy, especially for those running two sets of Medium and one of Hard.

The longest stint was 36 laps from Kevin Magnussen on the Hard, while Nyck De Vries did the most (33) on the Medium.

This was Red Bull’s 100th win from 355 Grand Prix starts. Its first dates back to 19 April 2009 when Sebastian Vettel won in China. Red Bull is the fifth team to have reached a century of wins in a category headed by Ferrari (242), followed by McLaren (183), Mercedes (125) and Williams (114).

Of the top ten finishers, six drivers stopped twice, with only four making just the one-stop. However, it is worth noting that Perez’s second pit stop, just two laps from the end, was carried out purely to allow him to pick up the extra point for setting the fastest race lap.

16 drivers opted to start on the Mediums: three of the remaining four – Perez, Bottas and Magnussen – chose the Hard tyre, while only Gasly preferred to start on the Softs. As expected, the C5 was the least used compound in the race, completing just 12 laps: ten of those were in Gasly’s first stint and two with Perez at the end of the race.

The most used compound was the C3 (70.4% of all laps completed), but a significant number of laps (28.7%) were run on the C4. In terms of stint length, the standout performance came from Albon, who is no stranger to this feat, running 58 laps on a set of Hards. He finished in an impressive seventh place. Leclerc drove the longest stint on Medium tyres doing 39 laps.

What’s next?

Next weekend, Formula 1 moves to Silverstone, one of the most historic venues on the calendar, having hosted 57 Grands Prix since 1950. The Silverstone track is one of the most demanding for tyres, and for the British Grand Prix, from 7 to 9 July, teams will use the C1 compound as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow medium and C3 as P Zero Red soft. Pirelli stays on at the Northamptonshire circuit on Tuesday, 11 and Wednesday, 12 July, for two days of testing slick tyres without the use of heating blankets. Taking part will be Red Bull, Haas and Williams.

2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Country	Team	Time	Points	Overall
1.	1	Max Verstappen	Netherlands	Red Bull Racing	1:25:33.607	26	229
2.	16	Charles Leclerc	Monaco	Scuderia Ferrari	+5.155s	18	72
3.	11	Sergio Perez	Mexico	Red Bull Racing	+17.188s	15	148
4.	55	Carlos Sainz	Spain	Scuderia Ferrari	+21.377s	12	86
5.	4	Lando Norris	Great Britain	Mclaren Racing	+26.327s	10	22
6.	14	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Aston Martin F1 Team	+30.317s	8	129
7.	44	Lewis Hamilton	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+39.196s	6	108
8.	63	George Russell	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+48.403s	4	70
9.	10	Pierre Gasly	France	Alpine F1 Team	+57.667s	2	17
10.	18	Lance Stroll	Canada	Aston Martin F1 Team	+59.043s	1	43
11.	45	Alexander Albon	Thailand	Williams Racing	+69.767s	0	7
12.	31	Esteban Ocon	France	Alpine F1 Team	+1 lap	0	31
13.	2	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	+1 lap	0	0
14.	24	Zhou Guanyu	China	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+1 lap	0	4
15.	21	Nyck De Vries	Netherlands	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0	0
16.	77	Valtteri Bottas	Finland	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+1 lap	0	5
17.	81	Oscar Piastri	Australia	McLaren Racing	+1 lap	0	5
18.	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Japan	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0	2
19.	20	Kevin Magnussen	Denmark	Haas F1 Team	+1 lap	0	2
20.	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Haas F1 Team	DNF	0	9

2023 Constructor Standings

Pos	Picture	Team	Points
1.		Red Bull Racing	860
2.		Mercedes-AMG F1 Team	409
3.		Scuderia Ferrari	406
4.		McLaren Racing	302
5.		Aston Martin F1 Team	280
6.		Alpine F1 Team	120
7.		Williams Racing	28
8.		Scuderia AlphaTauri	25
8.		Alfa Romeo Racing	16
10.		Haas F1 Team	12

Here are the team-by-team highlights:

Red Bull Racing

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen strengthened his hold on the Formula1 Drivers’ Championship lead with a dominant victory in the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, while team-mate Sergio Pérez delivered an impressive drive from 15th to claim the final step on the podium behind Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

After topping the qualifying session and Saturday’s sprint race, Verstappen was imperious during the 71-lap ra. Leading from the start, he then easily dispatched both Leclerc and second Ferrari Carlos Sainz after the first round of pit stops to cruise to an untroubled victory by 5.155s over Leclerc, even making a late stop for soft tyres so he could also claim the fastest lap of the race.

Pérez meanwhile impressed as he carved through the field from a lowly 15th position on the grid to secure a vital podium position with a late-race pass on Carlos Sainz after a few highlight laps of battling for position.

Victory today was Verstappen’s fourth win at the Austrian Grand Prix, his seventh from nine starts so far during the 2023 season, and he maintained Oracle Red Bull Racing’s unbeaten year.

The Dutchman now sits on 229 points in the Drivers’ Championship standings, extending his lead over Pérez to 81 points ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 9.

Max Verstappen, Driver, Red Bull Racing

It’s been a pretty incredible weekend; it couldn’t have been any better, to be honest. We did everything well as a team, from the strategy through to the pit stops. Heading into the race, we all had question marks around the tyres, but we were all happy with how they performed compared to our competitors. I felt really comfortable in the car all weekend, and we were able to do everything that we had planned. The final pit stop was a risk, of course. I think the Team could hear from my voice on the radio that I wanted to pit. From the outside, it might have looked crazy, but I knew we could do it. I saw there was a gap, and I wanted to make the most of it.

Sergio Pérez, Driver, Red Bull Racing:

It was a really good race. I think we had the pace this weekend: we showed it in the Sprint, and we showed it today. It was a nice comeback, and I feel really comfortable with the car. It has been really special. I think we were all racing quite hard, and it is always a pleasure to battle with drivers like Carlos. We’ve had a tricky few races, so it has been nice to get back and have that pace and form. I’m still not one hundred per cent physically however, so now I need to look ahead and recover ahead in time for Silverstone.

CHRISTIAN HORNER – CEO and Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

It has been an incredible day for the team today and a fantastic weekend. Max is obviously in exceptional form, taking qualifying, the Sprint race and now the Grand Prix is just sensational. Obviously, we took a different strategy from that of our competitors, meaning he had to make the overtakes on track, which led to some fantastic watching and a stunning weekend for him. We decided to go for the fastest lap on the last lap despite the risk involved in an additional pitstop, but Dietrich’s mantra was always ‘no risk, no fun’, and the mechanics have been in such incredible form that it felt relatively low risk. Checo, too had such a great pace today, particularly when he got clean air. When you start down in 15th, your ability to get close to victory is obviously compromised, so his recovery from 15th to a podium was outstanding, and his battle with Carlos was box-office.

“This is our best run of in-season results since 2013. The team is operating at a level not seen in our 19-year history, and we’re grateful for every victory we achieve. Results like today are the work of every single department. It’s not just about the race team. It’s the activity that goes on behind the scenes back at the factory, from operations, manufacturing, research and development, and aerodynamics to our support functions in finance, marketing, legal and HR. All of these need to come together and work as a team; this is where we are so strong.

“This is the first time we’ve been back at the track since Dietrich’s passing. It felt very poignant to put in such a great team performance today. Whilst not here in person, you feel his presence everywhere. His passion and spirit are the reason we’re all here today, and we owe him so much. This one’s for Dietrich.

Red Bull Racing Honda best pictures:

Aston Martin Formula One Team

 

Hear from Fernando, Lance and Team Principal Mike Krack following a dramatic 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Saturday’s Sprint saw both drivers take points and finish in the top five to bring home nine points, and the pair added an extra nine to the tally on Sunday – in our ninth-straight points-scoring weekend of 2023.

Fernando began the race on Hard tyres, and after a solid start, he pitted during the Virtual Safety Car for a set of Medium tyres – and was swiftly followed by Lance into the pits for a slick double-stack stop. Fernando rounded out the race on another set of Mediums and finished sixth, having started seventh on the grid.

Lance started sixth on a new set of Medium tyres, pitting for Hards during the early Virtual Safety Car on Lap 15. He worked his way back up into the top 10 and pitted twice more: on Lap 36 for another set of Hards and on Lap 54 for a set of Mediums. Despite a challenging day, Lance recovered back into the top 10 and took the final point.

Fernando Alonso

I think it was more or less the maximum we could achieve today. We were very close to Lando [Norris] in terms of pace and also the Mercedes. We tried something different by starting on Hards, but then the VSC meant our advantage of going longer in the first stint wasn’t possible anymore.

This circuit didn’t suit our car last year, so maybe there is something for us to look into. Overall, we’ve scored a number of points over the Sprint weekend, and we’ve made some ground on second position in the Constructors’ Championship. It’s a long season, and we have our home race at Silverstone next week. It’s an incredible track, so we will give it our all.

Lance Stroll

It was a tough day today, but we still came away from the weekend with some decent points for the team. We slightly mistimed our stop under the VSC this afternoon and lost several places in the pits, and that decision dictated the strategy for the rest of our race. In hindsight, we probably should have pitted during the first lap of the VSC rather than the second, so that’s something we’ll need to review and learn from.

I had a few good battles on track while fighting back through the field; taking [Yuki] Tsunoda at Turn Three was especially fun. Our focus now shifts to Silverstone. It’s one of the best tracks on the calendar, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there in a few days’ time.

Mike Krack, Team Principal:

Today was not our strongest performance, but we still managed to score nine important points. The podium fight was out of reach, but there was the opportunity to finish higher up with both drivers. We lost some track position early on when we chose to pit and stack both cars just as the VSC was ending, and that proved quite costly for both drivers.

Lance kept his head down to recover into the points, making some important overtaking moves when it mattered. With Fernando, our race today was with Mercedes and our pace, combined with some rapid pitstops, allowed us to come out ahead in that battle. Our attention now turns to our home race in Silverstone next week, where we look forward to putting on a strong performance in front of passionate British fans.

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team best pictures:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

 

Lewis Hamilton finished seventh, and George Russell eighth in the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. Lining up P5 and P11, respectively, Lewis and George began the race on the medium compound tyre, with Lewis gaining a position on the opening lap to move up to P4.

Both drivers used a Virtual Safety Car period on lap 14 to switch onto the hard compound tyre, gaining a few positions. As the second stint wore on, Lewis and George battled hard against cars with superior race pace, with Lewis being given a five-second time penalty for track limits infringements.

George made his second stop on lap 42 for the medium tyre, with Lewis doing so a lap later and serving his penalty. As the second stops cycled through, Lewis held P7 and George P8, positions they would keep until the chequered flag.

After a tough weekend, the focus moves immediately to next weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Lewis Hamilton

It was not the greatest of days today. We weren’t expecting to be as slow as we were, and our performance this weekend was a surprise. We don’t have the answer as to why just yet, but this track has highlighted several areas of improvement we need to focus on.

We knew we didn’t have a strong rear end this weekend, so we took out a lot of front wing to maintain the balance. I was really struggling into certain corners, particularly Turn 10, and sliding, which I couldn’t do anything about it. That is why I was struggling with track limits. We added some front wing at both stops, and the car began to come back to us, but it was still a challenge.

George Russell

It was really challenging today, and our pace was not as we expected. After yesterday, I was hoping for a little bit more from the Grand Prix. I am sure we will go away and get to the bottom of our performance here. We have the same car that we had in Barcelona where we were flying, so we need to understand what went wrong on our side. The car certainly doesn’t feel how we want it to at the moment. It’s moving around a lot, and it felt a little bit worse this weekend than at other circuits; the pace was substantially worse, though, so we need to get to the bottom of that.

Our performance is clearly circuit dependent now. We were nowhere here but good in Montreal and Barcelona. That bodes well for Silverstone as that is a circuit more similar to Barcelona than Austria, so we’re excited for next weekend’s British Grand Prix. We will be aiming to come back stronger.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Today was a bruising day for the Team. We’ve had a positive upward trajectory recently, but clearly, we didn’t have the pace we needed here. It’s been a tough weekend overall; both drivers have struggled with the car since FP1. From Friday onwards, we saw that we were lacking a couple of tenths, and we couldn’t make the car quicker. Once the tyres start sliding, either under braking or through the corner, then you have no grip. That contributed to our lack of performance, but we will have to go away and analyse it in more detail. We will take this weekend on the chin and move forward.

The swings are quite interesting from circuit to circuit, where sometimes we are the closest challengers to Red Bull, and at others struggling. We have a step of performance that we are bringing to Silverstone. Let’s see if that circuit suits the characteristics of the car a little more, and we will analyse it from there.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

There are lots for us to improve on leaving here. The performance clearly hasn’t been good enough; we need to understand how much is down to not landing the set-up in the right place and how much is just base performance. We’ve not brought any updates to the last few races, so it’s also possible we’re lacking development. We’ve got plans in place to address that, but the gap to Ferrari was certainly a worry today.

The situation with track limits was difficult; the notifications were coming in after the fact, so Lewis ended up with a penalty before we could do anything about it. We’re happy that we’ve only got to wait a few days before getting back on track. We need to work hard to understand the areas that need improvement, but we’re looking forward to Silverstone and putting this race behind us.

Mercedes-AMG F1 Team best pictures:

Scuderia Ferrari

 

The 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg went well for Scuderia Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finishing second and fourth, respectively. It was the Maranello marque’s 800th Formula 1 podium, the 26th for the Monegasque drivers. But most importantly, the performance in the Styrian hills confirmed the progress seen a fortnight ago in Canada. There is still a way to go to catch Max Verstappen and his Red Bull, but in Austria, it was clear that both drivers could maintain a strong pace throughout the entire race, fighting well and, in Carlos’ case, overtaking while also confirming progress made with tyre management.

Race. The race was pretty linear: Charles and Carlos maintained second and third places off the line before the team decided to bring in both cars to fit another set of Medium tyres when Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Charles kept second place, while Carlos dropped to sixth, but with his SF-23 on-song, he soon got past Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez to get back to third place. When Verstappen made his first stop, the two Ferraris found themselves in the lead, but the Dutchman retook it soon after. Unfortunately, Carlos was one of many drivers penalised for not respecting track limits, taking his five-second penalty at his second stop when he switched to Hards and therefore rejoined behind Norris. Once again, Carlos comfortably got past the Englishman to be third when Perez pitted for Hard tyres. The Mexican tore through the field until he came up behind the number 55 Ferrari on lap 59, and there followed a spectacular duel between him and Carlos. The Spaniard was on older tyres but fought tooth and nail so that Perez took four laps to eventually get ahead. This helped Charles, who was able to extend his advantage and have a relatively calm run to the chequered flag and his second podium finish of the season. Carlos finished fourth at the end of a race where he showed just how aggressive he can be behind the wheel.

Straight to Silverstone. The season goes on at a relentless pace, and next weekend it’s time for the British Grand Prix. The high-speed Silverstone track will see the debut of the new Pirelli tyres and present a new test bench for the SF-23

Carlos Sainz #55

It was a very solid race, even though I’m not happy with the final result, as I think we deserved a double podium today. I felt very quick and comfortable with the car, but after the first stop, the race was compromised as we lost time and positions. I did my best to push hard and recover, with some good overtaking, but unfortunately, I received the penalty for track limits.

In the end, I tried absolutely everything to defend from Checo but couldn’t hold on to that place on the podium. There are some things to review, but in general, we have to be happy with the progress made, and we need to keep pushing in this direction.

Charles Leclerc #16

It’s good to be back on the podium. Friday and today, we maximised what we have, and the upgrades we introduced this weekend worked well. The team has done an excellent job, and we will keep pushing in this direction. I also want to thank Carlos, as he made my life a bit easier by putting up a great defence against Checo. I was watching on the big screen. It was very exciting!

Now we go to Silverstone, which, with Spielberg, is among my favourite circuits. Hopefully, we can take advantage of the new upgrades we have on the car again and offer a bit more of a challenge to Red Bull in the next round.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

Today’s strong result for the team added to yesterday’s podium with Carlos, proves we are working in the right direction. If we look back, we had a good race in Canada, and today we confirmed the progress made on a completely different track layout with a different surface.

We still need to make another step forward if we want to fight with Red Bull, and we are working hard to achieve that. Charles drove very well today, and I think he would have been probably safe from the attacks from Perez towards the end. However, Carlos also played his part, fighting Checo, making him lose time.

Now we go immediately to Silverstone, on another completely different track on which we’ll need to confirm our current form to keep fighting with Mercedes and Aston Martin. We are doing a good job both on track and in Maranello, we will bring more upgrades in the UK, and we want to keep fighting in what I think will be a long battle all the way to the end of the season.

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McLaren Racing

 

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Lando drops to P5 at the start but fights well at Turn 1 to avoid further dropping. Oscar loses two places, falling to P15. Oscar gains a position to P14 as Lando zeroes in on Hamilton. Lando and Oscar both pit for Hards during a Virtual Safety Car period. Lando returns P6 and Oscar P16. Oscar suffers damage to his front wing and boxes for a fix. He returns in P18. Lando squeezes ahead of Hamilton with a brilliant move for P4. Both drivers box for a second time. Lando gets back out in P7, and Oscar in P18. Lando gains places as those in front of him change their tyres. He passes Gasly and then Sainz for P4. However, the Ferrari driver reclaims the position down the road. The order settles down in the final ten laps, as Lando brings it home in P5, with Oscar in 17th.

Lando Norris

A very good day! I was a little bit surprised we had the race pace that we did, and it was great to be fighting the Ferraris and Red Bulls. More importantly, we beat both the Astons and Mercedes, which was our main goal today. Overall, a good day and good points.

It’s one of those tracks which is easy to get punished on. We kept it on track and didn’t really make any big mistakes, with some good racing at times. The team has done a great job again. Thank you to everyone back in the factory for bringing the upgrade because that definitely got us in the points today. A big cheers to them.

Oscar Piastri

A long afternoon. I picked up some front wing damage in the middle with three cars having their incident in front of me, and I didn’t have anywhere to go, which was unfortunate, and our pace wasn’t great. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the next race. It’s a home race for the team, and I’ve got some new parts on my car, which I’m very much looking forward to. We’ll see what we can do next weekend.

Andrea Stella

It’s been a positive result here in Spielberg. Not just the valuable points from Lando’s P5 but also seeing the MCL60 fighting at the front. That’s good for the team and good for our fans. We know this track is a bit of a ‘Lando-Special’, and he was excellent again today, but certainly, some of this result is down to the upgraded aerodynamic package fitted to his car. It’s been a colossal amount of work at the factory to get this upgrade here and a good effort at the track to get the performance out of it. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people who made that happen, and I hope they’re enjoying the result because they certainly deserve it.

On Oscar’s side, he fell out of contention after some unfortunate circumstances, but we all appreciate the spirit with which he dug in and pushed hard in a race at the back of the field. It’s characteristic of Oscar – and the whole team – and we’ll take that going to our home race at Silverstone. We’re focused on that now and hoping for a positive result at the British Grand Prix.

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Alpine F1 Team

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team finished the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix with Pierre Gasly in ninth place and Esteban Ocon in twelfth place at Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring.

Pierre’s two points – a return to the top ten after missing out in Canada last time out – means the team leave Austria with four points from the Austrian Sprint weekend after Esteban’s seventh-place finish in Saturday’s Sprint race.

Both drivers were on the receiving end of five-second penalties during the 71-lap race; Esteban’s for an unsafe release during his first pit stop and Pierre’s for a track limits violation.

The team looks ahead to Silverstone next weekend for the British Grand Prix, the home race of the Enstone team.

Esteban Ocon:

It’s not been an easy race for us today. Of course, it’s always disappointing to miss out on scoring points. We’ll need to sit down and carefully review the race to see where we can improve and ensure we can be more competitive on Sunday next week in Silverstone. We had contact with Yuki [Tsunoda] on the first lap and sustained some damage, and then we had the penalty for an unsafe release later on, so it was certainly not our day! We leave Austria knowing we had a decent Saturday with points in the bag but with more work to do to improve on Sundays. Bring on Silverstone next week.

Pierre Gasly:

I think we pretty much extracted the most we could today. While it’s satisfying to be back in the points, it’s not where we want to be, as we aim to be much higher than ninth place. We’re lacking some pace compared to our nearest rivals, and that showed today. I was pushing a lot, and, in the end, we received a five-second penalty for track limits, like other cars again today. It probably doesn’t change the result, and only that we fought with Lance [Stroll] at the end rather than George [Russell] ahead. I’m definitely looking forward to Silverstone, and I think we can have a much stronger weekend overall there for the team’s home race.

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal

We are not satisfied to leave Austria with four points across the weekend. This end result highlights where we are lacking, especially in terms of being able to fight with our close rivals on race day who, right now, are a couple of tenths of a second ahead of us. Next week is Silverstone, where we will have an upgrade on the car, and we look forward to adding more performance in the coming races. This weekend was sadly marred by the tragic death of Dilano van ‘t Hoff in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in Spa-Francorchamps. Dilano will always be in our thoughts, and it serves as a reminder of the dangers we face in the sport we love. There are many discussions to be had in our collective goal to further enhance safety in racing. Right now, though, our thoughts are firmly with the family and friends of Dilano as well as the MP Motorsport team.

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Haas F1 Team

 

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen classified 19th, while Nico Hulkenberg was forced into retirement at Round 10 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, Spielberg.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team holds the seventh position in the Constructors’ Championship on 11 points.

Kevin Magnussen

I had a very poor pace. I went into the gravel at high speed when de Vries pushed me on at Turn 6, and I don’t know if there was damage to the floor, so we’ll have to check that, but there was no chance today. We’ll continue to work to improve as fast as we can.

Nico Hulkenberg

We don’t know the full picture, but after the first stop, the issue occurred. We lost power and couldn’t continue. It’s not ideal. It makes things more difficult going forward because we have less information, but we have to make the most of what we have. We’re surrounded by quicker cars that are pushing on from behind, forcing us to go at a pace we’re not necessarily able to keep up with. The positive is the two very good qualifying sessions this weekend and obviously a very good Sprint, so at least we have that.

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal:

Thankfully we got some points yesterday when we had the opportunity. Today has been a very disappointing day for us. Another PU failure on Nico’s car, and obviously, the car is not fast enough in dry conditions. We’ve got a lot of work in front of us, and we will keep on working. When we have the tools, we can get good results. As we showed yesterday, we need to do our homework.

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Alfa Romeo Racing Stake

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake endured a difficult weekend on the Styrian mountains, with no points scored at the end of a challenging Sprint event. In the main Sunday race, Zhou Guanyu finished 14th, while team-mate Valtteri Bottas crossed the finish line in 16th place after a first-lap contact compromised his hopes to climb back the ever-tight field.

A tough event for Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake: the team will now regroup before heading to Silverstone for the second and final leg of this doubleheader, where it’s set to bring upgrades to make a leap forward, aiming to regain competitiveness and get back into the battle for the top ten.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):

I got some damage on the front wing in a Turn One contact, unfortunately, which made me lose ground on my first stint. That compromised the rest of my race as, with such a tight field, it was pretty much impossible to recover. Overall, we have been lacking pace this weekend. This circuit certainly hasn’t suited us as much as in recent races. Nevertheless, we are meant to bring new parts to Silverstone next week, and they are meant to make a difference in our performance. We have seen it with our main competitors, how upgrades have been improving their pace, and hopefully, that will be our case, too, to get back in the fight for the top ten right away.

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):

Unfortunately, this weekend we haven’t been as competitive as we wanted, and the top ten ended up being out of our reach. I had a decent start today, and it seemed like I could’ve moved forward, but then the Safety Car came in just a couple of laps after I had to pit to remove a tear-off from my rear brake duct, and that ended up not helping us. Overall, our pace hasn’t been the same as we had shown recently. There is surely some work to do, looking into the next races, and we’re also meant to bring new upgrades in Silverstone next week. Hopefully, they’ll allow us to make a step forward and improve again our place in the standings.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative:

Today’s race has, unfortunately, been in line with our performances this weekend; we have made a step back compared to previous races, and of course, we will need to analyse this over the next few days. At the same time, our focus now goes on the next race in Silverstone for the final leg of this back-to-back: we are bringing an important upgrade there, which can hopefully improve our performance. The fight in the field is very tight, and we have been aware of this since the beginning of the season, so every tenth can make a difference. Next weekend’s race will be important for us, so we must not lose our focus: we need to keep working and come prepared to Silverstone in order to promptly react and get back to the positions we deserve. I want to thank the team, as well as Ferrari, for the job done this weekend: although it has been a difficult one, everyone has been working hard altogether, both trackside and back home in Hinwil, trying to maximise any chance. We need to keep pushing and not lose our confidence: there are still several races in front of us, and we’ll be ready to fight for every single point.

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Scuderia AlphaTauri

 

It was a difficult day for Scuderia AlphaTauri, whose drivers Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda both finished outside of the points, with de Vries finishing the race in 15th while Tsunoda finished in 18th after struggling with damage sustained on the opening lap of the race.

Nyck de Vries

I think it was a solid race today. We made some overnight changes to the car to find more performance, which meant we started the race from the pit lane. It certainly played out well for us as the early Virtual Safety Car closed the gap between all the cars. In terms of execution, I think we did a good job and extracted the maximum out of our package. We just lacked the pace to fight further towards the top 10. I’ll take the penalty that the stewards gave me, we’re just trying to find the limit, but thankfully we made a sufficient gap not to lose any positions. I still have a lot to improve on, and I’m certainly not yet at the level I want to be, but collectively we’re trying to consistently improve.

Yuki Tsunoda

At the start, I was aggressive, trying to make up as many positions as possible. It could’ve gone well, but unfortunately, we damaged the car going into Turn 1 and went off-track at Turn 4. I don’t know if I sustained damage on the floor from this, but afterwards, I didn’t have pace, so it was a super difficult drive. I couldn’t keep the car within the track limits, and I can definitely learn from this in the future, but overall, it was just a challenging race.

JONATHAN EDOLLS – Chief Race Engineer

With Nyck qualifying P20 on Friday, we elected to remove his car from Parc Ferme and make setup changes, including the rear wing level and suspension, which meant he started from the pit lane. Magnussen did the same, so we were racing with him from the pit exit at the start of the race. Yuki lost a large part of the front wing in turn one and subsequently ran off-track in turn four. Therefore, he had to pit on the first lap, which put him on the back foot. It was clear in the first stint that tyre degradation was on the high side and would result in a multi-stop race. Unfortunately, we pitted Nyck on Lap 12, the lap before the Safety Car was deployed, while others benefitted from the opportunity and were able to jump him, which was very unlucky. After the Safety Car period, Yuki struggled with understeer, which we corrected a lot at the next pit stop with a large flap adjustment, so we need to understand if there was damage to his car. From then on, and for both cars, it was a case of splitting up the race with pitstops to optimise tyre degradation and track position.

Overall, we didn’t have the pace to challenge for points. Track limits were also costly for Yuki, with him receiving a total of 15 seconds worth of penalties, which put him in P18 at the chequered flag. Nyck made some progress in the race and finished five places higher than he started, which is encouraging to see. Our focus now turns to Silverstone, where we are bringing a further aero update, addressing some of the weaknesses of the AT04. We will keep pushing hard and remain positive for the upcoming races.

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Williams Racing

 

I’m not disappointed about the race today. I think it’s a normal thing with the top 4 teams and top 8 cars in those positions, so there are only two points up for grabs. Lando had a great race, as did Pierre, so that was the remaining points, and we were the next best. It was a strong weekend for us. Our worst result was the 13th, where we were running P7 for most of it. When you think of it like that, it’s frustrating, but it shows we’re making steps forward. Obviously, this track suited us, and we were expecting a better result, which is a bit disappointing but still a great race and a good execution. I think we did a good job, and Logan had a great race, it demonstrates our steps forward.

Logan Sargeant

It’s been tough lately, so it’s great to see the progress we made today. When I don’t qualify well, I leave a lot of work to do on Sunday, so to have a good one under my belt is a nice step forward. Today’s race shows what we can do, and I feel like we’re finally moving forward in the right direction. We have a string of European races, which I’m familiar with, so hopefully, this is the start of something good for us. We’re heading to my favourite track next weekend, but it’s also a difficult one with lots of high-speed corners, which is something I need to focus on. Thanks again to the team for all the hard work in bringing the upgrades to my car, and we’ll now look forward to the next race.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance

Both drivers showed good pace today, and both finished in strong positions. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite have the pace to get to the top 10; the other teams were quicker today, but we were agonisingly close. On the positive side, the car handled well, the tyres were well-managed, and Logan had a very strong race. Next weekend in Silverstone, we will look to push the pace a bit harder again and score some points. Although this weekend was a sprint event held in mixed weather conditions, we have learned a lot about the car, and there are definitely some positives to take into the British Grand Prix.

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